"PAK - German Anti-Tank Weapons" from Canfora Publishing - at a discount on pre-order for a short time!

Canfora Publishing go from FLAK to PAK with their latest book - this one featuring the feared anti-tank guns of the German forces during WWII. We look at the contents of the book and find how to secure this at a pre-order discount (for a short time) in our preview...

"PAK - German Anti-Tank Weapons" from Canfora Publishing - at a discount on pre-order for a short time!

PAK - German Anti-Tank Weapons

From Canfora Publishing

By Tom Laemlein

200+ photos

152 pages

Hard-cover, Portrait format

Pre-order offer of €24.75 (25% off! - RRP €33)

Pre-order product Link on the  Canfora Website

The feared tools of German anti-tank guns & their crews
This is a photo study of German anti-tank weapons in World War II, providing interesting views of weapons, positions, and crews, from heavy rifles up to the massive 128mm gun, along with the full scope of anti-tank vehicles in action from 1939–45. It is an excellent reference for modellers, gamers, and students of military hardware.

Germany developed the initial anti-tank weapons and tactics because they were the first to face tanks on the battlefield. When the earliest Allied armoured vehicles crawled slowly across no-man's land, the Germans had nothing to stop them. Later, they began to use the "Spitzgeschoss mit Kern", (the K bullet), a 7.92mm steel core armour-piercing round, and with that, the battle of the armour penetrators and the tanks’ armoured protection began. As WWI came to a close, the Germans were developing artillery specifically focused on combating tanks, and the concept of the Panzerabwehrkanone (PaK), an anti-tank cannon, was born.

The anti-tank weapons got bigger
The Germans believed their 37mm Pak 36 to be capable of defeating enemy tanks at reasonable ranges, and combat experiences in Poland confirmed this thinking. Battles in France in the spring of 1940 revealed some startling inadequacies of the Pak 36 when matched against French medium and heavy tanks. 

In a few cases, 88mm Flak guns were called upon to save the day against well-armoured Allied tanks. German anti-tank units received the 5 cm Pak 38 in 1941, and although good for its time, it couldn't handle the T-34 or the massive KV heavy tanks. The armoured arms race escalated, and by 1944–45, a few German anti-tank guns had grown to 128mm, while 75mm and 88mm guns were commonplace.

Foreign flavours
The Germans used numerous foreign guns and vehicles, which were pressed into service to fill the ever-increasing demand for mobile anti-tank weapons, and many hybrid platforms were created, with varied success.

German anti-tank guns took a terrible toll of Allied AFVs during WWII and ultimately proved to be the greatest tank killers of the war. We leveraged our extensive image files to bring you the gruelling story of Germany’s anti-tank war, told through an incredible collection of images, many rarely seen before.

"PAK—German Anti-Tank Weapons" ships mid-January. To pre-order at the 25% discount, check out the link on the Canfora Website...